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Mirkwood Bats card art
Live Play Data

Mirkwood Bats

{3} {B} · Creature — Bat · The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth (LTR)
8%
Live Inclusion
Buy on TCGplayer
Times Brought
1600
Decks Running
788
Median Cast Turn
6
Drawn → Played
66%
Format
Multiplayer 1v1

43% of games where Mirkwood Bats resolved ended in a win for its controller, a +17.0 percentage-point lift over decks where it stayed in the library, on 207 observations.

Mirkwood Bats is in 8% of the 9514 Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live. That is a narrow slice of the format, but the performance signal is clear: when this 4-mana Bat hits the battlefield, win rates climb sharply relative to games where it never left the library.

The cast-vs-library delta sits at +17.0 percentage points, and the lower bound of that confidence interval clears zero, making this one of the stronger lift signals in Playgroup Live's dataset. The catch is timing. Median first-cast turn is 6, well past the curve for a 4-mana creature. Players hold it an average of roughly two turns after drawing before casting it, suggesting they wait for a token engine to be in play first.

The commander distribution is wide. Mr. House, Frodo, and Chatterfang lead the top slots, confirming that Mirkwood Bats finds a home across Mardu token go-wide builds, Orzhov sacrifice loops, and Golgari pest engines alike. Any deck that consistently creates or sacrifices tokens treats this as a free damage multiplier strapped to a flier.

At a glance
  • 8% of tracked Commander decks include Mirkwood Bats
  • 66% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
  • T6 median first-cast turn, reflecting the wait for a token engine
  • 43% win rate in games where Mirkwood Bats was cast
  • 57% battlefield stickiness once it resolves
  • 677 distinct players have brought Mirkwood Bats to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=219
0%
T1
2%
T2
5%
T3
17%
T4
12%
T5
48%
T6-9
15%
T10+
Median 6 P25 4 · P75 8 · max 18
On curve 25% (38 / 219 cast on T4) Cast same turn as drawn 31%

The "good card" funnel

1602 brought · 677 players
Brought to game
1602
Ever drawn
330
Reached battlefield
219
Still on board at game end
125
66%

Of 1602 Mirkwood Bats brought to games, 330 were drawn, 219 of those were cast, and the majority of those resolved copies were still on the battlefield when the game ended.

≥ +10.4pp

Players who cast this card win 43% of the time (n=207) , vs 26% when it never left the library (n=1098).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 17% (n=108) — about the same as leaving it in the library. Those players survived long enough to draw it, so the gap above is about the card resolving, not just about surviving.

Observed gap +17.0pp; 95% confidence interval +10.4pp to +23.7pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

364 instances
1.9%
Library
34.3%
Battlefield
33.5%
Graveyard
4.1%
Exile

Most Mirkwood Bats instances never leave the library, a baseline expectation for any singleton in a 100-card deck. What matters is that resolved copies end the game on the battlefield at a 57% rate.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

No single commander dominates. Mr. House leads with 788 total decks in the dataset, but the list spans Mardu, Orzhov, Golgari, and Sultai strategies, showing how broadly Mirkwood Bats slots into any token-matters shell.

Card text
Mirkwood Bats card

Mirkwood Bats

{3} {B}
Creature — Bat
Flying Whenever you create or sacrifice a token, each opponent loses 1 life.
2 / 3
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth (LTR) · Common · Illustrated by John Tedrick

Frequently Asked

How often is Mirkwood Bats drawn in a Commander game?
In 1520 tracked multiplayer games where Mirkwood Bats was in the deck, it was drawn 21% of the time. That is consistent with a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 330 copies that reached a hand, 66% were cast before the game ended. The remainder is mostly a function of game length rather than players choosing to hold it.
What turn does Mirkwood Bats usually get cast?
Median first-cast turn is 6. The distribution clusters between turns 4 and 8, with the 25th percentile at turn 5 and the 75th at turn 8. Players who draw it early tend to hold it for roughly two turns on average before casting, likely waiting for a token producer to already be in play so the trigger fires immediately.
Does casting Mirkwood Bats actually improve your odds of winning?
The data is directional and, notably, the confidence interval lower bound clears zero on this sample. Win rate when cast is 43% across 207 observations, versus 26% across 1098 participations where it stayed in the library. That is a +17.0 percentage-point gap. Given the sample size, treat this as a strong early signal rather than a definitive proof.
Is Mirkwood Bats legal in Commander?
Yes. Mirkwood Bats is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Pauper Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Pauper, Historic, Timeless, Brawl, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Alchemy, or Old School.
Why does Mirkwood Bats appear in so many different commander decks?
Its trigger fires on both token creation and token sacrifice, which means it generates value in two of the most common token-matters strategies: go-wide token swarm builds (Mr. House, Caesar) and sacrifice loops (Chatterfang, Witherbloom). Any deck that already wants tokens gets a damage multiplier for free on a flying body. That broad applicability across Mardu, Orzhov, Golgari, and Sultai color identities keeps the commander list diverse.
How sticky is Mirkwood Bats once it resolves?
57% of resolved copies remain on the battlefield at game end. For a common 4-mana creature that draws removal in token decks, that is a reasonable survival rate. It means opponents are frequently choosing to spend removal on it, which is itself a signal that the drain trigger is being felt at the table.